Academic Attacks Greenpeace For “Ignoring The Evidence” On GM Crops

The former Chief Scientific Officer in Brussels, who was fired by Jean Claude Juncker, has slammed the activities of environmental lobby group Greenpeace.

Professor Anne Glover, who was the chief advisor to the President of the European Commission Jean Manuel Barroso between 2012 and 2014, said Greenpeace and other campaigning organisations are failing to be “honest” about genetically modified crops, the Telegraph report.

Professor Glover, who was fired by former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker upon his taking office, accused the groups of “ignoring the evidence” and “fabricating a scenario” to continue their opposition to genetically modified crops.

Mr Juncker axed the post of chief scientific adviser after coming under intense pressure from Greenpeace and other environmental lobby groups, who hold a huge amount of influence in Brussels. These groups were fundamentally opposed to Professor Glover’s continuing in her position because of her views – notably on GM crops, despite her exceptional scientific credentials.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Prof Glover said that while she did not object to the “philosophy and ideology” of these groups, she had a serious objection to their use of evidence when it came to debating environmental issues and their abuse of statistics.

Prof Glover was previously the first ever Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland, where her role was to further enhance Scotland’s reputation as a science nation. She was joint chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Committee and served on the Scottish Council of Economic Advisers until her appointment to the European Commission in 2012.

She holds a Personal Chair of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen, along with other honorary positions across the globe.

In July Greenpeace and other green lobby groups wrote to Mr Juncker saying: “The current chief scientific adviser presented one-sided, partial opinions on the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture, repeatedly claiming that there was a scientific consensus about their safety.”

“We hope that you as the incoming commission president will decide not to nominate a chief scientific adviser.”

Discussing the letter Prof Glover said she was “deeply disappointed with them,” adding, “those NGOs that you mentioned were NGOs that I used to trust and many citizens do trust,” she said. “I think they have ignored the evidence and they have fabricated a scenario.”

“If I look at their letter, and what they describe, because I’ve met with many of them they know that simply it’s not true what they talk about.

“They have an ideology, they have a philosophy they wish to pursue. But you shouldn’t try and back it up by evidence, or if you like bad calling the evidence. That’s not honest.”

She added: “I would think that would be very unlikely because you mentioned it was controversial. Many people are against GM technology or crops because of an ideological position but it isn’t very controversial to think abot the evidence is very clear GM is safe.

UKIP Energy Spokesman Roger Helmer MEP said: “Greenpeace applauded the creation of the office, but now campaigns against it when the scientist disagrees with the Greenpeace agenda. what it wants is policy based evidence making not evidence based policy making. And when things go against it it throws its toys out of the pram”.